MORE people will be home for Christmas this year, and while retailers are not seeing the usual patterns from previous years, they’re sure there will still be high demand for quality produce.
Andrew’s Meats Hyperdome manager Josh Minifie said his store will create and sell up to 1000 hams this Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, Liz Christoforou and her team will be baking about 3000 dinner rolls – that’s 100 times the usual bake of about 30 dinner rolls.
And Earth Markets’ Kelly Pedersen will be trying to source quality stonefruit at reasonable prices right up to Christmas.
Mr Pedersen said it was an unusual Christmas. The price of mangoes was higher because there weren’t as many pickers – a role predominantly held by backpackers.
But he said to look out for specials. Peaches, plumbs and cherries were all looking great this year.
“Aussies travel an awful lot and they won’t be able to do that this Christmas, so we’re expecting that there will be bigger family Christmas lunches and dinners this year,” Mr Pedersen said.
“We know that people are looking for high quality. They like to splurge a little at Christmas to ensure nice things are on the table.”
Ms Christoforou said people liked to plan their Christmas celebrations.
“Family is really important, and we don’t want to disappoint,” she said.
“I remember one year two people fighting over the last breadstick. It’s important to people to get things the way they want them, and we put our heart and soul into that.”
In addition to usual stock, Baker’s Delight will have fruit mince tarts, lemon tarts and Christmas cakes.
Mr Minifie said the butcher would likely see more sales of turkey, duck and boneless pork. The store makes its own hams from scratch, a 48-hour process.
